ORANGE — Kris Selanis hit a two-run home run to get the bats going for the Athol Red Raiders and Mark Ferrari held the Mahar Senators to just two hits in a 6-2 win over their longtime rivals, Monday.
“It was definitely a win we thought we needed to have,” Athol coach Josh Talbot said. “We came off of a big win Friday and we’re trying to get things rolling. It’s always nice to beat Mahar, but we were just looking at it as another game on the schedule, another day to make us better.”
Selanis’ shot came in the fifth inning. With two outs, he hit a first-pitch fastball off Mahar’s Charlie Barnes over the left field wall to put his team up 4-2.
“I saw it right down the middle, fastball,” Selanis said. “Coach was talking to me before and it’s just like BP (batting practice). Saw it and was just swinging at it.”
Selanis was the first hitter Barnes faced. Barnes relieved starter Andrew Herk, who normally pitches in relief for the Senators (3-6). Herk pitched 4⅔ innings, giving up five hits and three runs with one walk.
Despite pitching well, Mahar coach Art Billings saw that Herk was “laboring” and knew he was only going to get a “couple of innings” out of him.
“He hadn’t pitched a lot of innings in a game, so pretty much when he got to 60-65 (pitches) you could see he was laboring a little bit,” said Billings. “I didn’t know what I was going to get out of him early on. But I knew I was going to get a couple of innings out of him and in the fifth, with two outs, he gave up that hit (a single to Joey Lehtomaki). He was leaving a few things high, wasn’t hitting his spots in the fifth inning and in the fourth inning even — I had actually thought about taking him out earlier than that — but he came back and pitched into the fifth, which I was real happy to see.”
The Red Raiders (4-6) added another run in the sixth. James Laford hit a ball to center, which went off Logan Dodge’s glove and allowed Laford to reach first. He then stole second and third, and came home on a pinch-hit single by Anthony Oro to put his team up 5-2.
“Can’t say enough about that at-bat,” Talbot said. “That pinch-hit off the bench and just kind of rips a line drive to give us a big run, so again a lot of guys coming through, a lot of guys making plays.”
The Senators intentionally walked Robbie Nelson to load the bases, and with two outs in the inning, Ferrari hit a ball up the middle that Mahar shortstop Sam Paul got to, but couldn’t make an initial play. Lehtomaki scored from third to put his team up 6-2. Selanis tried scoring as well, but Paul got threw out Selanis to end the inning.
Ferrari did the rest for the Red Raiders. He used 118 pitches to get through all seven innings. He allowed two runs on two hits and two walks while striking out 10.
His only blemish came in the second inning when Jake Tenney singled in Dodge from third. A balk allowed Joey Brozell, who moved to third on Tenney’s single, to tie the game at 2-2.
Ferrari settled down, allowing only one hit in the fifth and one walk and another runner off an error at third. He struck out seven in the final five innings.
“I liked that he was efficient,” Talbot said. “I think he had 87 pitches after six innings, which put him in a good position to go the distance. He never was really in trouble. He’s so overpowering sometimes that he doesn’t realize it’s OK not to strike out every guy. Sometimes one or two pitch at-bats sometimes helps extend his longevity, but today he went the distance without any trouble.
The Red Raiders scored in the second inning on a single by Laford and a sacrifice fly by Maysin Tarbell that scored Laford to go up 2-0.